By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Life as a minor league baseball player is unpredictable to say the least, and for the three local athletes currently trying to work their way onto a Major League roster, that’s been largely true.
All three are pitchers. From Sylvan Hills, Ashur Tolliver is in the Houston Astros’ Triple-A (one level below the major leagues) organization in Fresno, Calif.
Beebe’s Griffin Glaude is currently with the Toronto Blue Jays’ Double-A affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats roster. He has been bounced around like a pinball in his third year as a professional.
Connor Eller, a right-handed pitcher from Sylvan Hills, is also in the Blue Jays’ system. He is currently with the Single-A affiliate, the Lansing Lugnuts in Michigan.
For 29-year-old left-hander Tolliver, it’s been bouncing back and forth between the big leagues and Triple-A Fresno. Tolliver, who was drafted in the fifth round out of Oklahoma City College in 2009, was sent to Fresno after spring training, but he’s been called up for spot duty with the Houston Astros three times this season.
It’s been a similar season this year with Houston as it was last year, when he finally broke into the Majors as a 28-year-old rookie with the Baltimore Orioles. Baltimore used up all his options and had to put him on waivers.
An option in MLB means being sent back down to the minors after being called up for the majors. MLB teams are only allowed to option a player four times in a season before it has to put the player on waivers.
When Baltimore did so, he failed to clear waivers, and was scooped up by the Los Angeles Angels. After a brief appearance in L.A., he wasoptioned to the Arkansas Travelers, where he was able to end the season near his hometown.
This year, the Astros have also used up all of Tolliver’s options, and so had to place him on outright waivers, which he did clear. He was then sent outright to Fresno, where he will finish the season.
In his three appearances for the Astros this season, Tolliver has pitched five innings total with a 3.60 earned run average.
He has allowed three hits and two runs with five strikeouts and four walks. His opponents have a collective .235 batting average. He has a walks plus hits per innings pitched (WHIP) ratio of .160.
He has thrown 35 innings for Fresno with less success than his outings for Houston. In Triple-A, Tolliver has a 7.31 ERA. His opponents are averaging .289 and his WHIP is 2.04.
Glaude could be called the Blue Jays farm system utility pitcher. Signed as an undrafted free agent in 2015, the Lyon College graduate has been activated by four different Blue Jays affiliates and has worked as a starting and relief pitcher. He has been assigned 11 different times to those four teams.
In chronological order, Glaude’s summer has gone like this.
April 3 – Assigned to Single-A Lansing out of spring training.
April 24 – Assigned downward to Single-A short season Vancouver
April 26 – Assigned to Lansing
May 15 – placed on the 7-day disabled list
June 1 – Activated by Lansing
July 4 – Assigned to Double-A New Hampshire
July 6 – Assigned to Triple-A Buffalo
July 9 – Assigned to Single-A Lansing
July 19 – Assigned to Triple-A Buffalo
July 21 – Assigned to Lansing
July 27 Assigned to New Hampshire
July 30 – placed on New Hampshire’s temporarily inactive list
Aug. 9 – Activated by New Hampshire
He did not make an appearance during his short stint in Low A ball in Vancouver. He has 19 mound appearances with Lansing, two with New Hampshire and one with Buffalo.
And he has done well.
Combined, Glaude has thrown 41.2 innings with a 3.89 ERA. He has allowed 37 base hits and 18 earned runs with 42 strikeouts and 16 walks. Opponents are batting .234 and he has a 1.27 WHIP.
Eller was a 22nd round pick out of OBU in 2016. He has had a more normal summer with the Blue Jays, bouncing back-and-forth between regular Class A Lansing, and the Class-A Advanced affiliate in Dunedin, Fla. He was assigned to Triple-A Buffalo for one day on May 21, but did not make an appearance in that game.
He has made 31 total appearances, including 19 with Lansing and 12 with Dunedin. He spent the entirety of his first summer with Rookie League affiliate in Bluefield, West Virginia.
After spring training this year, he was skipped over the Low-A affiliate in Vancouver and placed in Lansing. His last move was to Lansing on June 3, where he has been since.
In his 12 appearances at Dunedin, Eller has a 5.12 ERA. In 19 appearances with Lansing, his ERA is 4.05.
Combined, he has a 4.44 ERA in 52.2 innings pitched. He has allowed 56 hits and 26 earned runs while striking out and walking 32 apiece. Opponent average is .256 and WHIP is 1.67.